Friday, April 10, 2009

Hockey is Lif

Last night I went to a Penguins hockey game, only the second that I've been to since living in Pittsburgh. It was great! Our tickets were partially subsidized, but since the face value was $100, they still were a little bit of money. No bother. They were great seats, the game was fun, Pittsburgh won 6 to 1 and we even managed to get a bus back home.

Now as you may know, Penguins hockey games take place in Mellon Arena which is soon to be replaced by a new arena of unspecified corporate sponsorship. Mellon Arena (aka Civic Arena, aka The Igloo) is described as an outmoded facility, which I have to say is probably true. Inside it has kind of a dingy feel, and some of the sigh lines are absolutely atrocious, ones you'd never see in a modern arena. If anything I'd have to say it felt a little like the L.A. Sports Arena, which I think is of a similar vintage, although the Sports Arena didn't have any sight lines as bad as some of the ones in Mellon. (One seat had a pole right in front of it, Fenway Park style. And for the only other Penguins game I've been to, we were "sitting" in standing-room "seats" on the periphery with an overhang in front of us that made it impossible to see the other side of the rink.)

One nice thing was that Mellon is pretty small. Even the highest seats still have a great view of the action, which is something you can say about other Pittsburgh sporting facilities (PNC Park, Mustard Palace) but not more modern facilities in L.A. (For example, the Staples Center is an absolute beast of an arena. The highest seat there are really, really high.)